Stimulate the economy, not the government

Obama is my president, and like all other patriotic Americans, I want him to succeed. But his discussion of the stimulus package in yesterday's op-ed piece surprises me. Why does he feel it so urgent that we rush to spend a trillion dollars that we don't have? One of my favorite things about Obama during the campaign was that his personality seemed calm, cool, and collected - he seemed to have a very steady personality, which is a useful trait in a leader. But the insistence that we pass the stimulus package NOW, without careful discussion of why we need this trillion dollar debt and what the money will be used for, seems to be at odds with this characterization.

I really liked some of what Mitt Romney had to say in an opinion piece today: Stimulate the economy, not the government. Like Romney, I worry that an extra trillion dollars of debt will cause our foreign investors to lose confidence in the dollar, which will lead to hyperinflation that will really destroy the economy for years to come. We need to be very cautious in assuming more debt than we already have.

I also think that many of the provisions in the stimulus package are just plain wasteful and wrong, like the $2 Billion allocated for a coal burning power plant (requested by Rod Blagojevich!) According to the government, this $2 Billion would create 2675 jobs, only 150 of which are permanent. That works out to $750k per temporary job! Surely, passing the stimulus bill as it stands would be a disaster. That's why I'm surprised that Obama is pushing so hard for immediate passage.

We got into this mess by spending money we didn't have. I don't see how doing more of the same will fix the problem...